Sept. 1, 2000 - While towns around it have ballooned with growth, Colona has remained pretty much what it has been for 100 years: a tiny, unincorporated burg along U.S. 550 where chickens scratch in the streets, everybody's on a first-name basis and the social nerve center is the Grange Hall.

The 45 or so folks who live here want it to stay that way. They sent a developer packing last spring after he unveiled plans for a large housing and commercial development that would have more than doubled the acreage of Colona.

But Colona residents - a quirky mix of deeply rooted ranchers, old hippies, artists and city escapees - are once again feeling development breathing down their necks. And once again they are preparing to try to run it off.

"Basically, we want to keep control of Colona, and we're feeling threatened," said John Thompson, who lives in a remodeled, century-old log cabin and runs a juice bar in nearby Montrose.

Thompson is referring to Craig Jackman, a Detroit businessman who also has a home in Telluride.

Jackman owns 244 acres west and north of Colona. Earlier this year, he revealed plans to cover about 20 of those irrigated acres with 150 homes, some businesses and a few light industries. Even though his proposal called for a development with a small-town feel - homes with front porches and garages in back and vintage Western facades for businesses - it bombed big-time in Colona.

Colona residents who like their town just fine as it is, thank you, filled their Grange Hall in May for a testy get-together with Jackman. No one spoke up in favor of Jackman's proposal.

Jackman backed off the plan without ever formally submitting the proposal to Ouray County for a zoning change.

"No one in their right minds would have wanted it," said Colona resident Dixie Rinehart, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineer.

Rinehart, who designed the early spacesuits and gloves for NASA astronauts, threatened to design and build a monument in the middle of Colona inscribed with the names of any officials who would support such a proposal. It would carry the message, "They ruined this valley."

Now, Rinehart and other Colona residents are preparing to man their antidevelopment ramparts again because they fear a zoning change could be in the works for the Colona area, with or without Jackman.

Zoning under scrutiny

Although Colona is unincorporated, a town plat from 1906 remains a blueprint for zoning. Under that plan, the county allows one residence every 6,000 square feet in the 9.5 acres that make up the Colona plat.

The Uncompahgre Valley pastureland surrounding Colona - the location of Jackman's land - is approved for one home every 35 acres.

The Colona grapevine has been buzzing with new development fears because Ouray County Commissioner Frank Hodsoll has asked the county planning commission, which is revamping the master plan, to take another look at the zoning around Colona.

To Colona residents, this translates to Hodsoll trying to foist some development on their community - and to do it in a hurry.

Hodsoll, who plans to resign from the commission this fall and move to Washington, D.C., said he has no intention of trying to force development on Colona. But he said he thinks there are problems there, such as the lack of a sewer system, that need to be dealt with.

"There is no push from the commissioners to do anything with Colona. We've given the planning commission no instructions," said Hodsoll, a government employee under presidents Reagan, Bush and Carter.

Hodsoll and fellow Commissioner Alan Staehle stress that Colona is going to have to face some sort of development in the future in a county that is expecting more than 6,000 new residents over the next five years.

Construction trucks regularly rumble through the town on their way to Loghill Village, a growing enclave of upscale homes surrounding a golf course on a mesa above Colona. To the south, Ridgway ranchettes are creeping toward Colona. And to the north, Montrose is expanding ever closer.

Staehle said he would like to see the Loghill area and Colona, along with the county's two incorporated towns of Ouray and Ridgway, be put in a special zoning class. Proposed developments would have to pass a list of criteria in these "performance zones" showing how they would benefit the communities. It would be up to town officials and the commissioners to decide if the benefits outweighed the negative impacts. Because Colona has no town officials, the commissioners would make decisions for Colona.

That doesn't sit well with Colona residents, who are determined to control their future. Some residents have contacted an attorney and are looking into the possibility of incorporating.

Ouray County Planner Greg Moberg said Colona's reaction has taken some county officials by surprise.

"For the most part, people thought they would be happy to have something there," Moberg said.

"But we found out loud and clear they don't want it."

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